This July 20, 1969, photo shows Neil Armstrong sitting in the Lunar Module on the surface of the moon. AP Photo/NASA

Ohio State University and Michigan State University researchers have concluded that Neil Armstrong probably did, as he said, utter the phrase “One small step for a man ...” and not the widely reported, “One small step for man...” when he walked on the moon.

The findings were presented Friday at the 21st International Congress on Acoustics in Montreal.

“Central Ohioans often blend the words “for” and “a” when they are spoken together,” said Mark Pitt, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State. Pitt also leads the university’s Language Perception Laboratory.

“Under the best of conditions, it may be hard for a listener to tell if both words are spoken,” he said. “And speaking from the moon is not the best of conditions.”

So how did researchers come to a conclusion? They listened to recordings of spontaneous speech from 40 people living around Columbus, close to Armstrong’s home town of Wapakoneta. In the recordings, they found 191 instances of people saying “for a.” They compared them with instances where speakers said “for” followed by a noun.

It would be easy to confuse “for a” for just plan “for” when a Central Ohioan is speaking, they concluded.

Teacher earns honors: Congrats to Victoria Karakasis, a teacher at St. Peter Chanel High School in Bedford, who was chosen from a pool of more than 500 applicants to participate in the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Summer Teacher Institute for the week of June 17-21.

She’ll work with Library of Congress education specialists and subject-matter experts to learn how to use primary sources in the classroom. Primary sources are the raw materials of history, such as original documents and objects. Relying on such primary sources, and not a series of texts, Tweets and wikis, is important for this digital, real-time generation. 

Under 40: Cleveland will have an influx of young leaders from across the nation this week as the Vangard Conference brings dozens of urban leaders from 28 cities.

The Vangard Class of 2013, considered the nation’s brightest urban advocates under age 40, will visit 25 spots in Cleveland during the three-day conference.

The trip is funded with grants from the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Positively Cleveland, the George Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation.

The class will attend sessions and hear speeches by local leaders including Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, Terry Schwarz, director of Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative and Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle, Inc.

And they’ll tour the Cuyahoga River by boat, ride bikes through Detroit-Shoreway and Ohio City and tour the city’s urban gardens. The event is hosted by the urban reporting Web site, Next City.

Follow their travels via Twitter using hash tag #Vanguard13. 

Sound of Ideas: Last week on the Sound of Ideas, honked off motorists stuck in Cleveland traffic weighed in with their thoughts on closing the West Shoreway. You might not be surprised to discover they didn’t like it.

This morning, in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University’s Science Café series of discussions on scientific topics, the Sound of Ideas will look closely at genetically modified foods. There’s no doubt genetic modification can make crops more resistant to pests and disease and create a tastier yield. But do we know enough about the effect of these modification on people and the environment? Christopher Cullis, the Frances Hobart Herrick Professor of Biology at Case Western Reserve University, will be a guest on the 9 a.m. show on WCPN 90.3 FM, as will Stephanie Spear, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Eco Watch. Tipoff’s Mike McIntyre hosts the program.

Cullis will be the expert guest for the Science Café discussion hosted by the Case chapter of Sigma Xi. That discussion begins at 7 p.m. at the Market Garden Brewery, 1947 West 25th St. 

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